Star Trek and sushi

OMG!!!

We went to see the new “Star Trek” movie at the San Francisco Metreon on Mother’s Day. I’m still so in awe of the show two days later that I can barely think clearly. I hardly slept the night that we went, I was so agitated about all of the amazing things that the movie did to revitalize the moribund Star Trek franchise. Can you even imagine hiring essentially an entire new cast to reprise the original characters, yet instead of turning out schmaltzy and sentimental, it’s exciting and heart-rending?!? I’m still in shock.

live long and prosper

Actually, I’d no idea that there was even a new S.T. movie in the making. Can you believe it? Maybe I’ve been too busy with work or writing the “Twilight” rant? I’m from a trekker/trekkie family, so I should of known better. My mother was so wound up about the movie (we spoke the morning that we went to see it) that I had to remind, no almost threaten, her three or four times not to tell me any details about it, in between wishing “Happy Mom’s Day.” Sort of changing the subject, she then boasted that when she was pregnant with me and went into labor, that she couldn’t drag my father away from the TV set until the S.T. episode, then airing, was finished (this was before reruns and video recording technology). I thought that it was a brilliant story; she thought that it was a bad memory. Either way, I’ve seen all of the original series, the original cast in the original series movies, Next Generation, the N. G. movies, Deep Space 9, Voyager, they sort of lost me on “Enterprise” though I’ve seen enough to know about it….

I’m so amazed by this new movie!!!  If you haven’t seen this film yet, I pity you.

The filming is stunning, the actors are amazing (much better than the original crew–sorry all you diehards out there) but what’s so incredible to me is how the story took all of the original characters with their original idiosyncrasies and somehow managed not only to alter their relationships (I for one was not expecting Uhura to make out with Spock.  Were you?) it kept to the same kinds of silly Star Trek plot devices (e.g. time travel, planet destruction, super hot evil dude from Romulan space) and created something completely fresh and new.  Wow!

I love the new Kirk, Chris Pine.  And Spock played by Skylar-actor, Zachary Quinto, blew my mind!  He’s almost creepy, in a very cool way.  This movie is just begging for a sequel, though today I heard a rumor that they might be planning to convert it into a television series.  I so hope not!  This show deserves more big budget movies.  To all of the trekkies/tekkers out there, don’t think of the movie as a loss and insult to the old series.  Instead, think of it as a glorious rebirth. as I do.  May Star Trek continue to live long and prosper!

eating Sanraku spicy tofu appetizer

After this emotionally draining and thrilling film, the weirdcombos crew was starving!  We’ve always been fans of the cute Japanese restaurant right on the ground level of the Metreon, called Sanraku.  I’ve loved sushi since I first tasted raw fish way back in Texas.  In fact, sushi is the reason that I’m not vegeterian (for more on that, click here).

We started with a round of Sapporo along with some warm and chilled sake.  They know me there, so the chef prepared a special amuse bouche of uni tofu over a tiny cucumber salad on the house.  Wonderful.  We then delighted in the spicy tofu salad and poppo yaki, a grilled squid dish.  The miso soup tasted wonderfully too. For the main course we tried various peices of sushi and sashimi, including some vegetarian choices.  One of us enjoyed chicken teriyaki.  I particularly love Sanraku’s tako nigiri, octopus on little rice balls held together with a seaweed strip: very chewy and yummy!  Their uni nigiri may be an acquired taste but Hegui and I both adore it. This sea urchin has a creamy buttery texture with the refreshing flavor of the sea. I tried this interesting fish, on special that day, that they called “grunt” in English. I liked the funny name. It had a texture and flavor similar to yellow tail. Very good.

sashimi Sanraku style

The service at Sanraku is consistently excellent. The atmosphere is simple and pleasing. They offer a discount program whereby you can earn points for every ten dollars spent. Once you have ten points, they send you a $10 off gift certificate. I go there frequently, so had $50 worth of certificates. We’ve all tried other sushi places in San Francisco but keep returning to Sanraku for it’s combination of high quality seafood, location and overall good service. I urge you to give it a try after you hit the movies!